Twelfth Day of Trivia — Outdoor Accents

Twelfth Day of Trivia — Outdoor Accents

I do wish I had 15 or 16 days to talk about more products. I thought about ending on mass timber products such as spline connections (CMSTC, LDSS, MDSS), tension straps (MDCST, MTWS), concealed beam hangers (CBH, ACBH, SCBH), or the heavy seated knife plate hanger (HSKP). Since I’ve written blog posts for most of those already, I decided to end with our Outdoor Accents® decorative hardware instead.

Outdoor Accents Pavillion
Outdoor Accents Pavillion

Outdoor Accents is a family of connectors with a black powder-coat finish and an innovative washer-and-fastener combination that simplifies installation. The Outdoor Accents structural wood screw (SDWS22DBB) installs through a hex-head washer (STN22) to create a bolted appearance without the hassle of drilling holes for bolts.

Outdoor Accents Structural Wood Screw and Hex-Head Washer
Outdoor Accents Structural Wood Screw and Hex-Head Washer

The connectors and fasteners are tested, load rated and code listed in IAPMO ER-280 and IAPMO ER-192. The Outdoor Accents structural wood screw is a modified SDWS Timber screw, which R&D Engineer Aram Kachadourian wrote about in this blog post. The Mission Collection® features connectors with a hint of Southwestern flair, whereas the Avant Collection™ features straight edges and chamfered corners for a contemporary design.

Avant and Mission Collection
Avant and Mission Collection

Our Simpson Strong-Tie Outdoor Living minisite includes a number of resources for planning outdoor structures. We have a catalog of DIY Project Plans, including several pergola and pavilion plans. We also offer Pergola Planner Software, which allows you to customize your pergola to fit your unique backyard. Fence Planner and Deck Planner software are also available.

Last summer, my mother-in-law visited her sister in Georgia and would not stop talking about the swing she had in her backyard. My sons designed and built this one.

Outdoor Accents Swing
Outdoor Accents Swing

On a larger scale, in 2021 we had some time to redo our backyard and build this pergola. I still haven’t taken a picture with all the pavers and planters installed. I should probably do that someday. My kids and I built this one, with some painting by my wife.

Outdoor Accents Pegola in Pauls Yard
Outdoor Accents Pegola in Paul’s Yard
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Author: Paul McEntee

A couple of years back we hosted a “Take your daughter or son to work day,” which was a great opportunity for our children to find out what their parents did. We had different activities for the kids to learn about careers and the importance of education in opening up career opportunities. People often ask me what I do for Simpson Strong-Tie and I sometimes laugh about how my son Ryan responded to a questionnaire he filled out that day: Q.   What is your mom/dad's job? A.   Goes and gets coffee and sits at his desk Q.   What does your mom/dad actually do at work? A.   Walks in the test lab and checks things When I am not checking things in the lab or sitting at my desk drinking coffee, I manage Engineering Research and Development for Simpson Strong-Tie, focusing on new product development for connectors and lateral systems. I graduated from the University of California at Berkeley and I am a licensed Civil and Structural Engineer in California. Prior to joining Simpson Strong-Tie, I worked for 10 years as a consulting structural engineer designing commercial, industrial, multi-family, mixed-use and retail projects. I was fortunate in those years to work at a great engineering firm that did a lot of everything. This allowed me to gain experience designing with wood, structural steel, concrete, concrete block and cold-formed steel as well as working on many seismic retrofits of historic unreinforced masonry buildings.

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